Pre-Occupied Spaces: Remapping Italy’s Transnational Migrations and Colonial Legacies is the title of a new book by Dr. Teresa Fiore (Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies at Montclair State University), published by Fordham University Press in May 2017.
By linking Italy’s long history of emigration to all continents in the world, contemporary transnational migrations directed toward it, as well as the country’s colonial legacies, Fiore’s book poses Italy as a unique laboratory to rethink national belonging at large in our era of massive demographic mobility. Through an interdisciplinary cultural approach, the book finds traces of globalization in a past that may hold interesting lessons about inclusiveness for the present.
Fiore rethinks Italy’s formation and development on a transnational map through the cultural analysis of travel, living, and workspaces as depicted in literary, filmic, and musical texts. Such texts include, among others, Crialese’s film Golden Door, Lakhous’ novel Clash of Civilization Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, Cavanna’s autobiographical book Les Ritals, and Calvino’s and Rodari’s short stories. By demonstrating how immigration in Italy today is preoccupied by its past emigration and colonialism, the book stresses commonalities and dispels preoccupations.
The first public presentation of the book is scheduled for Monday, December 11, 2017 (6:30-8:30pm) in the Lecture Hall 101, Feliciano School of Business at the Montclair State campus.